


A Galaxy Darker

by Merfilly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Jedi Apprentice Series - Jude Watson & Dave Wolverton, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Dark, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-08
Updated: 2016-04-08
Packaged: 2018-05-31 23:58:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6492919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Xanatos caught and sold away Obi-Wan, and Qui-Gon did not find him in time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Galaxy Darker

**Author's Note:**

> So, I had a bad day, and I wrote this. It's a bit of a sketch, leaving details to the reader's imagination.

"Where is he?!" Qui-Gon Jinn demanded, but Xanatos only laughed more before throwing himself backward into the acid, taking the secret to the grave. Qui-Gon was left with a raw, severed bond from the padawan he had failed to protect, and a deep hate for the one that had betrayed him.

* * *

_six years later_

Tatooine was a brutal place. Own or be owned. There were few free beings, as even those who saw themselves as free were subject to the harsh prices on the water they farmed. No one got far without being strong.

The strength had been all but beaten out of this slave, and he was soon to be discarded by the Hutt that had purchased him. A Toydarian, in the process of acquiring a mechanical genius and her mother found himself accepting the half-starved boy with the collar that must never be removed.

"Bah. Make him stronger, or I will throw him to the desert," Watto told the human female, who took the boy's hand in one of hers, holding her son's in the other. 

Later in the small hovel they had been given, Shmi gently cleaned the boy's face and neck with water she had scavenged from a drinking trough. "It smells, but it is better than nothing," she said. 

The boy swallowed hard. He had grown unused to the idea of kindness of others, but this woman seemed to treat her son, and him, with gentle care. "Thank you," he said, his voice small.

"What shall I call you?"

"Obi."

"My name is Shmi. You must grow strong. Watto is known for his impatience, but if you are strong, he will keep you."

"Death would be release."

Shmi gently tipped his face up, her eyes uncommonly wise. "Death would be your enemy winning."

* * *

_six years later_

Obi had lived Force-blind for twelve years, cut off from his abilities by the collar he wore. He could not remember what it was to know peace in his soul, but he had survived. And he had watched Anakin grow up with uncommon luck. Sometimes, he thought it was the Force. Others, he told himself he was merely seeing a specter of what he'd once had.

He worked hard, seeking some way to escape this living hell, but the chip and the collar meant he remained a slave.

He was just coming home, having put in long hours scavenging and dealing with the Jawas to bring scraps back to Watto. Voices, not his family, for Shmi was like a mother to him, and Anakin his brother, alerted him that there were others present. He kept his head down, hair falling forward to hide his face, as he tried to get to the room he shared with the boy.

Only the voice came to a stop, shock lingering in the air, and he raised his eyes enough to see why…

…to see the face of the one man he had never, ever expected to see in his life again.

"Obi-Wan?"

There was tortured pain in those syllables, and Obi just froze in place, his heart hammering. The girl beside him was tense as Qui-Gon crossed the room swiftly, checking his motion only centimeters from the young man. "Obi-Wan, it is you?"

"Only Obi, now."

That drew a choked sound out of the man, and then Obi found himself held against the poncho that hid the Jedi clothing, and those arms that had once comforted him as a boy, despite not having wanted him, were tight around him. Obi didn't know what to do, until tears he'd long since forgotten how to shed soaked the coarse fabric of the poncho.

* * *

The details of how Qui-Gon came to leave the planet with three slaves were not ones any of the others ever learned. Padmé did not want to know what the Jedi had done to free them; the elder man's face had been a storm cloud from the moment the young man had said who he was.

All she knew was that if he was not actively doing anything else, Qui-Gon was tending to the young man, who was sleeping under some form of compulsion from the elder man.

Even the attempt by the strange warrior that had come on them all had been nothing but a small obstacle, as the Jedi had slain him swiftly, fueled by his anger over Obi-Wan's state.

* * *

The chip was gone, but the collar remained. Obi-Wan was kneeling in the quarters that were both familiar and alien to him. Twelve years was a long time, yet the padawan side of the apartment was untouched.

"I would not take another, and I shall not take another," Qui-Gon said fiercely.

"Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked, knowing that Qui-Gon had decided the boy was one spoken of by an ancient prophecy. 

"The Council deems him too old, and Padmé has chosen to take him and his mother back with her." Qui-Gon pulled his lightsaber free, studying the collar. "Can you trust me, Obi-Wan, to do this?"

Obi-Wan was uncertain, but… the pain and anger his teacher had shown spoke of deeper emotions than Obi-Wan had ever thought the man held toward him. He nodded, then held perfectly still as Qui-Gon brought the lightsaber close to the collar. The electrical shock that tore through him was worth it, to have it finally removed. Nor did he say anything when Qui-Gon used the lightsaber to put the collar in many pieces after.

"What am I now?" Obi-Wan whispered.

Qui-Gon regarded him evenly. "My friend, I hope," he said softly. "I must go to Naboo, to attend to the Queen's safety. After… if you wish to return here, to heal and find yourself, we will. If not…" Qui-Gon took a deep breath. "I have not been a model Jedi, Obi-Wan, since Xanatos stole you from me. The Order would not be displeased if I chose to walk away, should you choose for us to do so."

Obi-Wan shook with emotion at that confession, those offers. He closed his eyes. "I will go with you to Naboo?"

"If you wish to."

"Yes."

"Then we will go, and we will choose our path there, after we see the Queen to safety."


End file.
